Cartons



March 18, 1958 LEVKOFF 2,827,220

CARTONS Filed July 12, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1: w FHGB.

3 26 INVENTOR United rates atent CARTONS David Levkot'r, Great Neck, N. Y., assignor of one-fourth to Evelyn S. Levkotf, one-fourth to Henry S. Levkoif, and one-fourth to Edith L. Sennet, Great Neck, N. Y.

Application July 12, 1955, Serial No. 521,478

3Ciaims. (Cl. 229-31) This invention relates to boxes or cartons, and more particularly to those of shallow, tray-like form presently used for containing such products as tomatoes, fruit, candies, cookies and many other articles. A carton of the character referred to is shown and described in my Patent No. 2,274,714 dated March 3, 1942.-

One of the shortcomings of the tray-like type of carton mentioned above is its failure to expose a substantial part of the articles which it contains. While an effort is made to exhibit as much of the goods as possible by the use of a transparent wrapper placed around the carton and its contents, nevertheless, certain portions of the goods are concealed and particularly by parts of the bottom of the carton. In the case of tomatoes, fruits and other goods likely to possess soft spots, bruises, blemishes which would normally render such goods difl'icult or impossible to sell, the customers purchasing such goods in the cartons and unable to completely inspect the goods because of the concealment of portions thereof by parts of the carton, must either hope that each carton of goods which she purchases will not have concealed defects, or else must refuse to purchase such packaged goods. Therefore, as above pointed out, a deficiency of presentday cartons resides in lack of complete, or nearly-complete exposure of the contained goods.

It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a carton having greatly increased visibility for its contained products whereby the purchaser, upon examination of a filled carton, can immediately ascertain that the goods are spotless or of good quality, or are not worthwhile purchasing.

It is an object of the invention to provide a carton of this character which shall be open at the bottom to thereby permit the purchaser to see and examine those parts of the contained goods which are lowermost in the carton.

It is another object of the invention to provide cushioned supports, formed integrally with parts of the carton structure, and which supports shall support and contact with the goods only at spaced points thereby exposing and rendering visible those parts of the goods which are located between their points of support.

It is another object of the invention to provide a pair of hollow, tubular, box-like supporting rails within the carton at the lower end of the sidewalls thereof, which rails form spaced, supporting and cushioning ledges for the goods and provide an open window or space between them whereby the parts of the goods which bridge the ledges are exposed to view through such Window or space.

It is another object of the invention to provide hollow supporting rails as above described, which rails extend along the lower portions of the side walls and are formed as integral extensions thereof and constitute not only supporting ledges for the contents of the carton, but also comprise stifiening members to add rigidity and strength to a substantially bottomless carton.

It is an object of the invention to provide a tray-like,

bottom-less carton in which the contentsare" carried by spaced, longitudinally-extending hollow supports extending along the lower end portions of certain of the walls of the carton, which supports serve to strengthen and stiffen the carton and also serve as shock-resisting cushions for the cartons contents.

With these and other objects to be hereinafter set forth in view, I have devised the arrangement of parts to be described and more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto.

In the accompanying drawings, wherein illustrative embodiments of the invention are disclosed,

Fig. 1 is a face view of a blank from which a carton of the present invention is produced, looking at the outer face of the blank;-

Fig. 2' is a top plan view, on an enlarged scale, of a set-up or erected carton produced from the blank of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view, taken substantially on the line 33 of Fig. 2, looking inthe direction of the arrows;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view through the carton to illustrate a slightly modified construction;

7 Fig; 5 is a sectional View, taken substantially on the line 5-5 of Fig.- 2, looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig; 6 is a sectional view, somewhat like Fig. 3, but shown in perspective;

Fig. 7 is a diagrammatic sectional view across the carton, indicating how the erection of the side walls brings one of the hollowsuppo'rting rails to its operative position and also showing how these rails are formed and attached to the side walls;

Fig. 8 is a bottom view of the carton in its flattened or collapsed condition;

Fig. 9 isa face view of a portion of a modified form of blank;

Fig. 10 is a transverse. sectional View through a carton made from the blank of Fig. 9, and

Fig. 11 is a sectionalview in perspective of a carton made from the blank of Fig. 9.

Referring to the drawings, and more particularly to Fig. 1 thereof, wherein the blank from which the carton is produced is shown, the central longitudinal panel of the blank is formed with the lengthy slit 3 thereby dividing this panel into the two sections indicated respectively at 1 and 2 and which sections constitute the side walls of the carton or tray that is formed from the blank. The slit 3 extends toand ends at the transverse slits shown at 5 and 6, formed in the inner end walls 4 and i of the carton. End wall 7 is formed with the extended locking flap 8 that is folded down on the score line to bring said flap 8 down into the carton to have its lower edge engaged with a slit 10 then located at the junction of theend wall and a portion of the nearly-open bottom of the carton or tray. The tabs shown at 11 and 12 are infolded on the longitudinal score lines 13 and 14- and brought to overlapping relation, and these tabs 11 and 13 may be adhesively united in their overlapped position. The tongues shown at 15"21I1d'16 are also overlapped and are adhesively secured together.

Extending laterally from the fold lines 13 and 14 are areas generally designated on the blank at 17 and 18, and which areas are used for the formation of a pair of tubular, hollow, supportingbox-like rails 20 and 26a upon which goods contained in the carton or tray are supported. Each of the areas 17 and 18 is provided with a plurality of longitudinally-extending parallel score lines indicated respectively at 19, 21 and 22. vAs will be clearly seen in Figs. 3, 6 and 7 the portion 23 of area 17 that is located between the score lines 1 3 and 19 forms the lower web of one of the'rails 20 or 20a. The part shown at 24 and which is located between the score lines 19 and it is suppliedto the user. The tabs 11 and 12 have been brought to overlapped position and are adhesively attached together. Similarly the tongues 15 and 16 have been overlapped and adhesively united; The flap portions 26 have been adhesively attached to the side walls 1 and 2 adjacent to the lower edges of such walls; To erect the carton, the end .walls 4 and 7 are brought to vertical position by folding on the transverse score lines 27. This also causes foldingon the diagonal fold lines 27a whichresults in bringing of theside wa1ls 1 and 2 to upstanding position. As these walls 1 and 2 come to erectposition, they act to erect the rails 20 and 20a as Will be apparent from Fig. 7, which shows the wall 2 being partly erected and indicates how it tends to pull its attached rail into its final operative position. In that figure, the second rail is shown unattached to'the wall 1 to more clearly disclose the formation of the rail before such attachrnent. When the side walls are erected as above described, the locking flaps 8 are then folded down into the carton on the fold lines 9 and the same engage with the slits l and hold the carton erected.

In Figs. 2, 3, and 6, the carton isshown in its set-up or erected position. It will be therein noted that the merchandise-supporting elements of the carton consist Wholly of the supporting rails 20 and 20a. The square or rectangular cross-sectional shape of these rails provides exceptional strength and rigidity to the carton. The entire bottom portion of the carton between these rails 25B and Zlla is open and unobstructed and hence any goods placed in the carton and supported on these rails will have its lowermost parts visible through the space or openwinof the top Wall 25, thereby increasing the supporting surface at the top of these rails. It will be apparent that these projected supporting areas may be made in various shapes and sizes according to the goods to be supported by them.

From the foregoing, it will be noted that a carton ortray is provided in which'the goods are supported on spaced tubular rails which provide an open or windowed bottom for the box through which lower portions of the goods are visible for inspection. The support of the goods in the manner described causes relatively small area of contact between parts of the box and the g0ods,,so that air can freely pass around the goods. The support of the goods on these rails rather than'on a flat, closed bottom of the carton results in the goods being supported on parts which are not in direct contact with any surface on which the carton is rested or against which it might forcibly contact. for the goods, atfording a maximum protection against bruising, crushing or breakage of the goods. t 7

While I have herein described an embodimentof the invention, it is obvious that the same is not to be restricted thereto, but is broad enough to cover all structures coming within the scope of the annexed claims.

WhatIclaimis:

1. In a carton of the tray-like type, a pair of side walls,

end walls, a pair of box-like rails located at the lower. ends of the side walls and formed by integral folded extensions of the side walls, each rail having an extended downturned end flap adhesively attached to the side wall adjacent to which it is located, the rails extending for the greater portion of the length of the carton but terminating short of the end walls thereof, overlappingadhesively-united tongue portions extending from the opposite side walls extending horizontally and constituting parts of the bottom of the carton, said tongue portions being located between the ends of the rails and the end dow located between the rails( These rails can be made either relatively narrow ormade of substantial width, according to the natureof the merchandise to be supported by them or according to the extent of visibility required for the inspection of the contents of the carton. Certain types of goods can be fixedly anchored in the rails if desired, by providing apertures in one or the other of the walls of. the rails and engaging portions of the goods in such apertures. For example, apertures provided in the top walls of the rails might receive the bases of lamp bulbs or other small articles. a

a In herein describing the manner in which the rails are formed, it has been suggested that the fastening flap 26, bearing 'an adhesive, can be turned down and brought against the face of the lower portion of the side wall of the carton whereby said flap will be located below the top wall 25 of the rail. As an alternative for this, such attaching flap might be turned upwardly and secured to the side wall above the top wall 25 of the rail. This will be understood by reference to Fig. 4, wherein an enlarged version 26a of the fastening flap 26 is disclosed and which is adhesively fastened to the side wall 1. In

this arrangement, the fastening flap is shown as extending to the top edge of the side wall. and this results in the production of a double-thickness side wall from the upper wall 25 of the rail to, the top edge of the side wall. This construction'has the advantage of materially stiffening 7 supporting surface is required of the top wall 25 of the Therein, this supporting surface is insupporting rails. creased by the production of spaced tabs which are stamped out of the vertical wall 24-of the rails. These 2. In a carton of the tray type, a pair ofside walls,- inner and outer 'end walls, the inner end walls having. downturned locking flaps, a bottom consisting of a pair of flaps extending inwardly and integrally from 'the' side. walls, each of said flaps being split inwardly from its longitudinal edge adjacent to its opposite ends to provide a rail-forming panel, said panel being longitudinally folded on parallel lines to form it into a rectangul'ar,

hollow rail of less length than the side walls,.and having a bottom Wall, a vertical side wall, horizontally disposedtop wall, and a downturned securing flap, said securing flap being adhesively attached to the inner face of one 'of the side walls, said rails terminating shortof the end walls and having portions of the panel of which the rails constitnteparts,disposed in flat, overlapped horizontal relation between the ends of the rails and the end walls and co-operating with the rails in forming a bottomfor the carton.

3. In a carton of the tray type, a pair of side walls,

end walls, a'pair of box-like rails located at the lower ends of the side walls and formed by integral extensions of said side walls, each rail having an end adhesively attached to the innertace of one of the side walls, the

rails extending for the greater portion .of the length of the carton but terminating short of the end walls whereby spacing is provided on the carton bottom between the ends of the rails and the end walls, overlapping adhesivelyunited tongues extending from the side walls, said tongues being disposed horizontally and being located in the spacing between the ends of the rails and the end walls and co-operating with the rails in forming the bottom oftabs 30 thus provide lateral and horizontal extensions There is thus a shock-absorbing supportprovided the carton, said bottom being open between the rails and closed in its end areas by the overlapping tongues.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Ringler May 26, 1942 10 6 Buttery June 7, 1949 Frankenstein Jan. 3, 1950 Lighter Apr. 17, 1951 Bloomer Apr. 1, 1952 Frankenstein Sept. 7, 1954 Bergstein Apr. 19, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS France Apr. 11, 1924 

